In a confluence of student activism and political reprisal, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has come under fire for the deployment of state troopers — some on horseback — to quell a Gaza solidarity protest at the University of Texas at Austin. Students there, as part of a nationwide wave of campus actions, had called for the university to divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.
These protests, which have also seen unrest at other universities across the United States, have led to calls for divestment from arms manufacturers and U.S. and Israeli companies profiting off Israel’s military actions.
Governor Abbott, who has previously positioned himself as a staunch defender of Israel, publicly lambasted the protests on social media, stating, “Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail.” This hardline stance was accompanied by the mass arrest of demonstrators at UT Austin, where, according to a statement by the university, roughly half of the 55 people detained were not affiliated with the institution. The Travis County Attorney’s Office later announced that those arrested would not face charges at the time due to “deficiencies in probable cause.”
The crackdown drew criticism from state Democrats, who contrasted the swift action taken against peaceful student protesters with the response to the Uvalde school shooting. “Today, Greg Abbott’s [Department of Public Safety] has more courage to arrest peaceful student protesters than when an active shooter entered an elementary school in Uvalde,” the Democrats stated, framing the Governor’s actions as motivated by political agendas rather than governance.
FIRE, a longtime critic of DEI, said Abbott’s use of police to break up the demonstration “makes his disregard for the First Amendment’s protection of political speech clear.” Will Creeley, FIRE’s legal director, asserted that bringing in a “phalanx of law enforcement threatens protected speech where it should be at its most free: a public university like UT Austin.”
Journalists were also caught in the fray, with the arrest of a Fox 7 photographer eliciting condemnation from peers. “If he’s guilty of criminal trespass, then I am too, as are a dozen other credentialed, on-the-clock journalists who were peacefully recording on a public lawn,” Ryan Chandler of KXAN expressed his concern for press freedom on social media.
Relevant articles:
– Backlash against Texas governor after he sends troopers on horseback into Gaza protest on campus, The Independent, 04/27/2024
– Texas Gov. Abbott faces backlash after mass arrest at UT Austin pro-Palestine protest, The Hill, Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:48:00 GMT
– What the backlash to student protests over Gaza is really about, Vox.com, Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:43:10 GMT
– Columbia University president faces censure vote as campus protests spread nationwide: Live updates, The Independent, Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:45:04 GMT